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Startup automaker to acquire shuttered GM plant in La.

The trust responsible for selling and cleaning up former General Motors properties has agreed to sell a shuttered GM plant near Shreveport, La., to a start-up carmaker that plans to hire 1,500 new workers.

Startup automaker to acquire shuttered GM plant in La.

Elio Motors signed a deal to buy the former GM plant near Shreveport, La.

Folks gather around the Trikke, a new three wheel vehicle that will be produced at the former General Motors assembly plant in Shreveport, La., Thursday Jan. 3, 2013. It was announced that Elio Motors, maker of the "Trikke", is going to move into the site and is expected to bring some 1500 jobs to the area.(Photo: Douglas Collier, The (Shreveport, La.) Times)

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Elio plans to build an ultra-small, three-wheeled vehicle at the plant

DETROIT -- The trust responsible for selling and cleaning up former General Motors properties has agreed to sell a shuttered GM plant near Shreveport, La., to a start-up carmaker that plans to hire 1,500 new workers.

An ultra-small carmaker called Elio Motors signed a deal to buy the former GM plant in Caddo Parish from the Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust.

The deal was heralded by Louisiana politicians as an economic victory for a community devastated by GM's contraction. The state was expected to provide incentives for the project, but details were not immediately available.

RACER said Elio plans to use 1 million square feet of the 1.8 million-square-foot property to manufacture three-wheeled vehicles. Officials said production would start in mid-2014.

A Shreveport TV station quoted a local politician saying the plant would not be unionized.

On its website, Elio doesn't list information about its investors but describes its $6,800 vehicles as "the next big thing in transportation." The company sought to raise $10 million in a fall 2011 offering, but only raised $150,000 initially, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The company's cars, which will have two wheels in the front, will get an average of more than 60 miles per gallon and will come with three airbags, according to the company.

"There were three driving factors in the purchase of the plant: The business-friendly economic environment; the quality of the local experienced workforce; and our unwavering commitment to build Elio vehicles in America, with American workers," Elio CEO Paul Elio said in a statement.

GM, which most recently made the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon at the plant, stopped making vehicles there in August. The company gave up the property in 2009 as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and then leased it back from the trust until it stopped production last year.

RACER declined to reveal details about the transaction but said it has now sold 25 former GM properties for $27 million.

The trust, which was assigned responsibility for 89 former GM properties in 14 states, is still trying to sell several high-profile sites like the Willow Run powertrain plant in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., and the Buick City properties in Flint.